Defining Online Branding Color Psychology Echoes

I’ve recently wrote a piece on color psychology and got some pertinent comments, worth reading,

from Ed Roach and Kevin Skarritt (aka Chief Nut), both branding professionals. Kevin criticizes my article, considering that setting norms for color use is not a good branding approach. To support his comments he proudly explains how boldness worked for Acorn Creative’s (his) brand image:

Right. Sure it worked. After all, Acorn’s brand should suggest differentiation, creativity, and boldness. But have a bank do the same thing with its website and tell me what public reactions can you foresee?

Ed, on the other hand, considers that staying away from a particular standard color will help a logo differentiate (and lead). That’s probably true. In the very article that determined Ed Roach’s commentary I wrote: “Although each color has its audience and its industry, there are cases when one color might be successfully employed for atypical applications.” But I’ll not go for Ed’s “lead” due to logo color differentiation idea. I can only quote Nick Rice and hope for the best:

The design of your logo really doesn’t matter. Would you choose MSN as your search engine over Google because of their logo?

And I consider Nick Rice’s statement accurate. While I love the Apple logo, I’ll never buy anything else but a DELL. I love McDonald’s logo, but I’ll always go for Burger King’s “Feel the Fire” (although their logo is far from being so “cool”) or for KFC’s spicy wings. Coca-Cola has a great brand, but Pepsi simply tastes better… to me. It’s all a matter of personal taste, perception and preference.

As Kevin Skarritt often says in his blog, what makes a brand stand out of the crowd is emotion. After all it’s the public perception that sets the directions for a brand. The logo and the website, colors and fonts, are just pieces of the puzzle. The branding development is more complex. This is an on-going process. I’d say that the public sets the standards. If this year airy layouts with light backgrounds work best, is because the Web users find these easier to use. Ben Hunt’s piece on last year’s trends is elucidatory, and so is Phil Brisk’s article.

To conclude: the logo alone does not make a brand. The website alone, no matter how great the design, has no chance either. You’ll need to take a skilled designer to create your logo and your website, according to your vision (meaning: the designer should understand your industry, target audience, corporate values, etc), then go for more… for instance a public relations expert to communicate your brand.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Come on let’s face it, Nick’s statement suggesting usage based on just a logo is plain wrong-headed. As well as your own statement saying that you like Apple’s logo but will only buy Dell. Our purchases are based on ‘the entire brand relationship’. Not one small part – but the whole enchidala.

Let’s take a bad corporate brand image from another level. Let’s take that local
independent restaurant down the block from you, and the other restaurant across the street from it. One has a very professional brand image and the other is an obvoius home-made sign. No cars are parked out front of either. Which will you trust to be a superior dining experience? This scenario “could” make an impression based solely on the Brand’s logo.

Now let’s discuss dining with our friends and they say, the ugly restaurant has superior food and service. The other one, is snobbish and the portions small. You read how food critics rate the ugly one higher. You see that they are heavily involved in local charities, blah, blah, blah. Now here is where the entire brand sells the ugly one better over the slick one.

An additional arguement I will toss in is: how much money is the ugly one leaving on the table with an ugly brand image? If they’ve done this well with a low end image how much better would they be if they upgraded their corporate brand image. I contend that they will also get the business they lose from lousy curb appeal that scares away the un-informed clientele.

The point being – the ‘entire brand’ should do the best job it can, so that competition is kept at bay and you have a greater opportunity for growth.

(Pamil, mybloglog emailed me to say you left a message but I failed to find it. If it was mistaken – NEVER MIND.)

Ed, I totally agree with you. I don’t buy a product based on a logo! My statement is correct. I love that Apple logo. Is the customer service that sucked. So since that day I am a convinced pro- dell… 🙂

Yes, yes… you are right about the “entire brand relationship”. Hey… I like your passion!

(Yes, I left a message on mybloglog, but it was not about this matter. I’ll email you)